Last week the North East Syndicate had their first winner as Prioritise won in Roscommon in impressive fashion.

How did you get into racing initially?

My father got me into it. I’ve been going racing with him since I was six or seven years of age, I just fell in love with horses. Myself and my father used to train a small string of horses years ago. We put in a sand gallop and started training a few for ourselves at the start and then for a few of the local lads. We have a family business in transport as well that kind of took off, so we just parked the horses for a while. But I’ve always been a regular racegoer and I just love the buzz of it.

So how did the syndicate come about?

It started in a pub called Sarks Bar, in Louth. A great racing and GAA pub. The owner Sean and a couple of lads approached me to try and set it up. It eventually got up and running at the start of the year. There is myself and my father and 10 other lads there. I called John McConnell and told him that we had a syndicate coming together. John has been brilliant and the plan came to fruition with Prioritise’s win at Roscommon.

Now that you have mentioned him, talk to us a little bit more about John McConnell. He is having phenomenal success this year, so it must be great that you got in with him at the start of such a successful time.

The boys in the syndicate was asking me who I thought we should go to and I told them straight out that John was the only man for the job. He has been superb to us. He has had incredible success this year. It’s great to have that connection with a yard that is winning races in the likes of Cheltenham and Punchestown. He gets results with horses that don’t cost a fortune. He is so honest as well. He is very accommodating and very accessible. I would recommend John to anyone.

So tell us about the win in Roscommon. Prioritise did it really well and pulled right away from the field.

Yeah, she did it very well, Ben gave her a lovely ride. It took her the last couple of runs to get her jumping going. John has done a brilliant job with her in that regard. She jumped like a rabbit that night, she never missed a beat. Brian Hayes has done a lot of work with her as well, getting confidence into her. But Ben gave her a fantastic ride, he produced her going into the second last and she quickened brilliantly.

Was there anything that stood out to you about her when you saw her for the first time?

She is well-bred. As a daughter of Camelot, she has other values when her racing career is finished. If she gets another win under her belt she will be worth a few quid. All the lads in the yard will tell you that she has a fantastic temperament. She is just a lovely mare to be involved with.

What’s the plan with her now?

There are options there for her on the flat. She is well handicapped there. A lot of the syndicate would have gone to Galway down through the years so it would be nice if there was a race for her there. There is probably a fair chance she will end up in Ballybrit in August. I think that is the way John is thinking at the moment.

Any significance behind the colours of the syndicate?

Everyone in the syndicate is either from Louth or Monaghan, hence the reason for the red and blue colours. They are split fairly evenly on the silks.

Is there anything that horse racing could do to improve the owner’s experience?

Obviously, prize money is still a bit of an issue. I think the smaller lower-rated handicaps could be increased a bit. The facilities at the racetrack are great but maybe more could be done for syndicates. More could be done to make all the members of the syndicates feel welcome because it’s a special day for everyone involved when your horse is running. Half of our syndicate was involved in owning horses before and the rest are first-timers.

So it’s just to try and make that experience for the first-timers as good as possible.

Any plans to reinvest in another horse now that you have had a winner?

Absolutely, I hope to anyway. I hope to keep the syndicate alive. Hopefully, we can pick up something in the horse-in-training sales in England. Maybe pick up a lad that has fallen out of love with racing and hopefully reignite his spirit.

I do like a horse that can compete in both codes, maybe pick up a hurdle race and switch back to the flat. It’s nice to have a dual-purpose horse. So hopefully we can get a second horse up and running for the syndicate in the next three or four months.

What advice would you give to someone looking to get involved in horse racing ownership?

Definitely get a syndicate together. Get someone who knows the game to get it up and running and then take it from there.